Saturday, March 11, 2017

Film Friday: Sausage Party (2016)

This is going to be short. That is all this movie deserves. I was looking forward to this one. The commercials were brilliant at making this look like a clever and funny film. It’s not.

The idea behind this film is quite promising. All the things you buy in the grocer store are conscious. They think people are gods and that Heaven is where you go when people buy you. They are about to find out, however, that life with humans is a hellish horror movie as they will find themselves cut up, baked alive, used to wipe butts, etc. A great idea.

It’s too bad nobody competent worked on the film.

Do you want to know what this film is like? Imagine six of the douchebag-iest teenagers you’ve ever met. These are the kind of retards for whom low-hanging fruit is unobtainable Shakespearian brilliance. Now imagine said douchebags deciding to take this idea and work it into the raunchiest thing they can come up with. Yep. Every sentence is flooded with hate-filled cusswords. Every “idea” – I hesitate even to use the word here – is about sex... but not sex in the sense that normal people know it. Imagine a gang of uneducated Mexicans standing on the street corner shouting obscenities at hookers.

You know, I can’t help but compare this to South Park. South Park the movie was genius. They were known for pushing the envelop on television. And when they got to do the movie (Bigger Longer and Uncut... a circumcision joke in the title that most people miss), everyone expected they would swear a lot. So they did. But they didn’t just swear. No, they turned the idea of swearing into a social statement. Their characters swore with purpose and with panache. It was clever. It was funny. You couldn’t help but laugh when they swore. Heck, you went home singing the “Uncle Fucker” song. Every swear word in South Park was chosen for a particular purpose.

Sausage Party is just a bunch of retard douchebags trying to say something their little minds think is cool. It is Mexican day labor swearing at you on the street. Pathetic.

15 comments:

Sounds pretty much like what I expected, vulgarity for the sake of being vulgar. I wasn't interested in catching it myself, though I was mildly amused by the delicate left freaking out about it (saying that the taco character was a homophobic caricature and the douche was a triggering rapist). Good call on the South Park movie doing vulgarity with a purpose, too!

For me, not having seen it, the worst part of this movie is having to tell my 8-year-old that it's not for kids. I don't have an issue with adult-directed animation per se, but the marketing for this movie really did make it look like a kids' movie. And you know how 8-year-olds can be. He took it personally, like he'd committed a major offense just by suggesting it. How was he to know? Hell! How are parents to know? Kudos to Walmart for putting a giant display, that practically obscured the actual DVDs, reading "NOT FOR KIDS." Really, it was that straightforward.

tryanmax, Agreed. We saw the preview in theaters during, I think, the Avengers film, and my kids were stoked. Nothing told you that this wasn't for kids. We figured it out later. I think they did that intentionally to reach parents so they would check it out to see if their kids can watch it.

Either way, this thing sucks and the "writers" should be ashamed... if that was possible with this group. But it's not.

I understand that, Andrew, about both this movie and the South Park one. They definitely did some stuff that was gross and crazy even by South Park standards in the video game Stick of Truth, too! Let's just say you'll get some surprises if you randomly open house doors in old RPG style (and this doesn't even get into the Nazi zombie aborted fetuses which you fight exactly where you think you'd find them). They still generally do good stuff, though!

Yeah, I'm NEVER ever seeing this movie. Aside from looking totally retarded (a word I try not to use too much anymore)... it just looked mean-spirited and as usual, Rogen and Co. go for the low-hanging fruit, if you'll excuse the expression. ;-)

It's such a bizarre distinction but when they do profanity, it comes across as, "We had nothing else so here's Seth Rogen saying f---. And when in doubt, we'll say it again and again."

But HBO's Veep manages to make an art form out of profanity and insults, as does its British predecessor The Thick of It. There's a certain kind of mischievousness and creativity on display when they do it. Again, it's a subtle difference but it's there.

Scott, As a general rule, I see swearing as bad writing unless it has a purpose. It can show a character being dumber, less verbally acute, or harsher than others. It can be done to separate a character from the rest. It can be done cleverly. It can be done for shock if the setup is right... like a priest swearing.

This was just crude, mean-spirited swearing for the sake of not knowing what else to say. It's pretty pathetic.

The most surprising thing about this review is that you had higher hopes for it. ;)

I'm not a big fan of swearing, but I'm not entirely opposed to it either. Mostly I just want stuff I can watch with my kid. Personally, I think "bleeped" swearing can be funnier that actual swearing. i.e., Arrested Development. There's an "uncensored extended" version of the pilot on the Season 1 DVD set. Only a couple of uncensored swear words, but less funny to me somehow. Like it breaks the 4th wall of being a fake reality TV show.

Anon, LOL! The initial previews looked really good. It was totally clean. It looked clever. The jokes were funny. The setup looked great. And you had no idea who was involved.

Then we found out who did it and that made us worry. Plus, we realized that it wasn't aimed at kids, like the first preview totally was. So that made us suspicious.

Then we saw it and it was anger-inducingly bad.

On swearing, I tend to see swearing as just bad writing unless there's a purpose to it. Some people know how to use it (emphasis), others use it because they can't find more express ways to say what they want.

I saw this movie and actually watched the whole thing. By turning it off, you missed the celebratory food orgy at the end-with money shots. Awful film. I laughed a couple of times, mostly just a chuckle, and that was around the guy who actually could hear the food talking while high on bath salts. It was racist, sexist, misogynist, and just not funny. Fortunately, I watched it on Netflix and didn't pay any money.